Monica Medina

Professor of Biology

Monica Medina

Huck Affiliations

Links

Most Recent Publications

Acquisition of obligate mutualist symbionts during the larval stage is not beneficial for a coral host.

Aaron Hartmann, Molecular Ecology on p. 141-155

Evidence for microbially-mediated tradeoffs between growth and defense throughout coral evolution

Hannah E. Epstein, Tanya Brown, Ayọmikun O. Akinrinade, Ryan McMinds, F. Joseph Pollock, Dylan Sonett, Styles Smith, David G. Bourne, Carolina S. Carpenter, Rob Knight, Bette L. Willis, Mónica Medina, Joleah B. Lamb, Rebecca Vega Thurber, Jesse R. Zaneveld, 2025, Animal Microbiome

Protect US racial affinity groups

V. Bala Chaudhary, Sora Kim, Mónica Medina, Diane S. Srivastava, Nikki Traylor-Knowles, Marlene Brito-Millan, Alejandra Camargo-Cely, Snehanjana Chatterjee, Nancy Chen, Yolanda H. Chen, Kiyoko M. Gotanda, Samniqueka J. Halsey, Chandra N. Jack, Rosa M. McGuire, Cassandra M.L. Miller, Alex C. Moore, Suegene Noh, Theresa W. Ong, Ariane L. Peralta, Amanda Puitiza, Lucia N. Ramirez, Adriana L. Romero-Olivares, M. Fabiola Pulido-Barriga, Karina A. Sanchez, Christine Y. Sit, Chenyang Su, Juleyska Vazquez-Cardona, Yaamini R. Venkataraman, Chhaya M. Werner, Lily Khadempour, 2025, Science on p. 937

Reassessing the role of herbivores on urban coral reefs: A case study from a heavily impacted reef near Cartagena Bay, Colombia

Andrew A. Shantz, Tomás López-Londoño, Kelly Gomez-Campo, Roberto Iglesias-Prieto, Mateo López-Victoria, Mónica Medina, 2024, Urban Ecosystems on p. 689-697

The Evolution, Assembly, and Dynamics of Marine Holobionts

Raúl A. González-Pech, Vivian Y. Li, Vanessa Garcia, Elizabeth Boville, Marta Mammone, Hiroaki Kitano, Kim B. Ritchie, Mónica Medina, 2024, Annual Review of Marine Science on p. 443-466

Host–symbiont plasticity in the upside-down jellyfish Cassiopea xamachana: strobilation across symbiont genera

Victoria Sharp, Allison H. Kerwin, Marta Mammone, Viridiana Avila-Magana, Kira Turnham, Aki Ohdera, Todd LaJeunesse, Monica Medina, 2024, Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution

Unraveling the functional dark matter through global metagenomics

Georgios A. Pavlopoulos, Fotis A. Baltoumas, Sirui Liu, Oguz Selvitopi, Antonio Pedro Camargo, Stephen Nayfach, Ariful Azad, Simon Roux, Lee Call, Natalia N. Ivanova, I. Min Chen, David Paez-Espino, Evangelos Karatzas, Silvia G. Acinas, Nathan Ahlgren, Graeme Attwood, Petr Baldrian, Timothy Berry, Jennifer M. Bhatnagar, Devaki Bhaya, Kay D. Bidle, Jeffrey L. Blanchard, Eric S. Boyd, Jennifer L. Bowen, Jeff Bowman, Susan H. Brawley, Eoin L. Brodie, Andreas Brune, Donald A. Bryant, Alison Buchan, Hinsby Cadillo-Quiroz, Barbara J. Campbell, Ricardo Cavicchioli, Peter F. Chuckran, Maureen Coleman, Sean Crowe, Daniel R. Colman, Cameron R. Currie, Jeff Dangl, Nathalie Delherbe, Vincent J. Denef, Paul Dijkstra, Daniel D. Distel, Emiley Eloe-Fadrosh, Kirsten Fisher, Christopher Francis, Aaron Garoutte, Amelie Gaudin, Lena Gerwick, Filipa Godoy-Vitorino, Peter Guerra, Jiarong Guo, Mussie Y. Habteselassie, Steven J. Hallam, Roland Hatzenpichler, Ute Hentschel, Matthias Hess, Ann M. Hirsch, Laura A. Hug, Jenni Hultman, Dana E. Hunt, Marcel Huntemann, William P. Inskeep, Timothy Y. James, Janet Jansson, Eric R. Johnston, Marina Kalyuzhnaya, Charlene N. Kelly, Robert M. Kelly, Jonathan L. Klassen, Klaus Nüsslein, Joel E. Kostka, Steven Lindow, Erik Lilleskov, Mackenzie Lynes, Rachel Mackelprang, Francis M. Martin, Olivia U. Mason, R. Michael McKay, Katherine McMahon, David A. Mead, Monica Medina, Laura K. Meredith, Thomas Mock, William W. Mohn, Mary Ann Moran, Alison Murray, Josh D. Neufeld, Rebecca Neumann, Jeanette M. Norton, Laila P. Partida-Martinez, Nicole Pietrasiak, Dale Pelletier, T. B.K. Reddy, Brandi Kiel Reese, Nicholas J. Reichart, Rebecca Reiss, Mak A. Saito, Daniel P. Schachtman, Rekha Seshadri, Ashley Shade, David Sherman, Rachel Simister, Holly Simon, James Stegen, Ramunas Stepanauskas, Matthew Sullivan, Dawn Y. Sumner, Hanno Teeling, Kimberlee Thamatrakoln, Kathleen Treseder, Susannah Tringe, Parag Vaishampayan, David L. Valentine, Nicholas B. Waldo, Mark P. Waldrop, David A. Walsh, David M. Ward, Michael Wilkins, Thea Whitman, Jamie Woolet, Tanja Woyke, Ioannis Iliopoulos, Konstantinos Konstantinidis, James M. Tiedje, Jennifer Pett-Ridge, David Baker, Axel Visel, Christos A. Ouzounis, Sergey Ovchinnikov, Aydin Buluç, Nikos C. Kyrpides, 2023, Nature on p. 594-602

Differing lesion recovery rates of two Caribbean stony coral species across a shallow water to mesophotic depth gradient suggest different sensitivity to repeated disturbance

Joseph E. Townsend, Marilyn E. Brandt, Sonaljit Mukherjee, Mónica Medina, Tyler B. Smith, 2023, Coral Reefs on p. 1067-1077

Exploring the Status of an Urban Coral and the Presence of Potential Probiotic Traits in Culturable Bacteria

Jordan Steven Ruiz-Toquica, Luis Alejandro Yañez-Dukon, Carolina Herrera Khenayzir, Isaac Romero Borja, Adolfo Sanjuan-Muñoz, Monica Medina, Andres Franco-Herrera, 2023, Journal of Marine Science and Engineering

Comparative Genomic Insights into Bacterial Induction of Larval Settlement and Metamorphosis in the Upside-Down Jellyfish Cassiopea

Aki Ohdera, Khushboo Attarwala, Victoria Wu, Rubain Henry, Henry Laird, Dietrich K. Hofmann, William K. Fitt, Mónica Medina, 2023, mSphere

Most-Cited Papers

A communal catalogue reveals Earth's multiscale microbial diversity

Luke R. Thompson, Jon G. Sanders, Daniel McDonald, Amnon Amir, Joshua Ladau, Kenneth J. Locey, Robert J. Prill, Anupriya Tripathi, Sean M. Gibbons, Gail Ackermann, Jose A. Navas-Molina, Stefan Janssen, Evguenia Kopylova, Yoshiki Vázquez-Baeza, Antonio González, James T. Morton, Siavash Mirarab, Zhenjiang Zech Xu, Lingjing Jiang, Mohamed F. Haroon, Jad Kanbar, Qiyun Zhu, Se Jin Song, Tomasz Kosciolek, Nicholas A. Bokulich, Joshua Lefler, Colin J. Brislawn, Gregory Humphrey, Sarah M. Owens, Jarrad Hampton-Marcell, Donna Berg-Lyons, Valerie McKenzie, Noah Fierer, Jed A. Fuhrman, Aaron Clauset, Rick L. Stevens, Ashley Shade, Katherine S. Pollard, Kelly D. Goodwin, Janet K. Jansson, Jack A. Gilbert, Rob Knight, Jose L. Agosto Rivera, Lisa Al-Moosawi, John Alverdy, Katherine R. Amato, Jason Andras, Largus T. Angenent, Dionysios A. Antonopoulos, Mónica Medina, 2017, Nature on p. 457-463

A genomic catalog of Earth’s microbiomes

Stephen Nayfach, Simon Roux, Rekha Seshadri, Daniel Udwary, Neha Varghese, Frederik Schulz, Dongying Wu, David Paez-Espino, I. Min Chen, Marcel Huntemann, Krishna Palaniappan, Joshua Ladau, Supratim Mukherjee, T. B.K. Reddy, Torben Nielsen, Edward Kirton, José P. Faria, Janaka N. Edirisinghe, Christopher S. Henry, Sean P. Jungbluth, Dylan Chivian, Paramvir Dehal, Elisha M. Wood-Charlson, Adam P. Arkin, Susannah G. Tringe, Axel Visel, Helena Abreu, Silvia G. Acinas, Eric Allen, Michelle A. Allen, Lauren V. Alteio, Gary Andersen, Alexandre M. Anesio, Graeme Attwood, Viridiana Avila-Magaña, Yacine Badis, Jake Bailey, Brett Baker, Petr Baldrian, Hazel A. Barton, David A.C. Beck, Eric D. Becraft, Harry R. Beller, J. Michael Beman, Rizlan Bernier-Latmani, Timothy D. Berry, Anthony Bertagnolli, Stefan Bertilsson, Donald A. Bryant, Mónica Medina, 2021, Nature Biotechnology on p. 499-509

Coral-associated bacteria demonstrate phylosymbiosis and cophylogeny

F. Joseph Pollock, Ryan McMinds, Styles Smith, David G. Bourne, Bette L. Willis, Mónica Medina, Rebecca Vega Thurber, Jesse R. Zaneveld, 2018, Nature Communications

Whole genome analysis of a schistosomiasis-transmitting freshwater snail

Coen M. Adema, La Deana W. Hillier, Catherine S. Jones, Eric S. Loker, Matty Knight, Patrick Minx, Guilherme Oliveira, Nithya Raghavan, Andrew Shedlock, Laurence Rodrigues Do Amaral, Halime D. Arican-Goktas, Juliana G. Assis, Elio Hideo Baba, Olga L. Baron, Christopher J. Bayne, Utibe Bickham-Wright, Kyle K. Biggar, Michael Blouin, Bryony C. Bonning, Chris Botka, Joanna M. Bridger, Katherine M. Buckley, Sarah K. Buddenborg, Roberta Lima Caldeira, Julia Carleton, Omar S. Carvalho, Maria G. Castillo, Iain W. Chalmers, Mikkel Christensens, Sandra Clifton, Celine Cosseau, Christine Coustau, Richard M. Cripps, Yesid Cuesta-Astroz, Scott F. Cummins, Leon DI Stephano, Nathalie DInguirard, David Duval, Scott Emrich, Cédric Feschotte, Rene Feyereisen, Peter Fitzgerald, Catrina Fronick, Lucinda Fulton, Richard Galinier, Sandra G. Gava, Michael Geusz, Kathrin K. Geyer, Gloria I. Giraldo-Calderón, Matheus De Souza Gomes, Michelle A. Gordy, Benjamin Gourbal, Christoph Grunau, Patrick C. Hanington, Karl F. Hoffmann, Daniel Hughes, Judith Humphries, Daniel J. Jackson, Liana K. Jannotti-Passos, Wander De Jesus Jeremias, Susan Jobling, Bishoy Kamel, Aurélie Kapusta, Satwant Kaur, Joris M. Koene, Andrea B. Kohn, Dan Lawson, Scott P. Lawton, Di Liang, Yanin Limpanont, Sijun Liu, Anne E. Lockyer, Ty Anna L. Lovato, Fernanda Ludolf, Vince Magrini, Donald P. McManus, Monica Medina, Milind Misra, Guillaume Mitta, Gerald M. Mkoji, Michael J. Montague, Cesar Montelongo, Leonid L. Moroz, Monica C. Munoz-Torres, Umar Niazi, Leslie R. Noble, Francislon S. Oliveira, Fabiano S. Pais, Anthony T. Papenfuss, Rob Peace, Janeth J. Pena, Emmanuel A. Pila, Titouan Quelais, Brian J. Raney, Jonathan P. Rast, David Rollinson, Izinara C. Rosse, Bronwyn Rotgans, Edwin J. Routledge, Kathryn M. Ryan, Larissa L.S. Scholte, Kenneth B. Storey, Martin Swain, Jacob A. Tennessen, Chad Tomlinson, Damian L. Trujillo, Emanuela V. Volpi, Anthony J. Walker, Tianfang Wang, Ittiprasert Wannaporn, Wesley C. Warren, Xiao Jun Wu, Timothy P. Yoshino, Mohammed Yusuf, Si Ming Zhang, Min Zhao, Richard K. Wilson, 2017, Nature Communications

Phylogenomics provides a robust topology of the major cnidarian lineages and insights on the origins of key organismal traits

Ehsan Kayal, Bastian Bentlage, M. Sabrina Pankey, Aki H. Ohdera, Monica Medina, David C. Plachetzki, Allen G. Collins, Joseph F. Ryan, 2018, BMC Evolutionary Biology

Whole transcriptome analysis reveals changes in expression of immune-related genes during and after bleaching in a reef-building coral

Jorge H. Pinzón, Bishoy Kamel, Colleen A. Burge, C. Drew Harvell, Mónica Medina, Ernesto Weil, Laura D. Mydlarz, 2015, Royal Society Open Science

Expansion of the global RNA virome reveals diverse clades of bacteriophages

Uri Neri, Yuri I. Wolf, Simon Roux, Antonio Pedro Camargo, Benjamin Lee, Darius Kazlauskas, I. Min Chen, Natalia Ivanova, Lisa Zeigler Allen, David Paez-Espino, Donald A. Bryant, Devaki Bhaya, Adrienne B. Narrowe, Alexander J. Probst, Alexander Sczyrba, Annegret Kohler, Armand Séguin, Ashley Shade, Barbara J. Campbell, Björn D. Lindahl, Brandi Kiel Reese, Breanna M. Roque, Chris DeRito, Colin Averill, Daniel Cullen, David A.C. Beck, David A. Walsh, David M. Ward, Dongying Wu, Emiley Eloe-Fadrosh, Eoin L. Brodie, Erica B. Young, Erik A. Lilleskov, Federico J. Castillo, Francis M. Martin, Gary R. LeCleir, Graeme T. Attwood, Hinsby Cadillo-Quiroz, Holly M. Simon, Ian Hewson, Igor V. Grigoriev, James M. Tiedje, Janet K. Jansson, Janey Lee, Jean S. VanderGheynst, Jeff Dangl, Jeff S. Bowman, Jeffrey L. Blanchard, Monica Medina, Terrence H. Bell, 2022, Cell on p. 4023-4037.e18

Comparative genomics explains the evolutionary success of reef-forming corals

Debashish Bhattacharya, Shobhit Agrawal, Manuel Aranda, Sebastian Baumgarten, Mahdi Belcaid, Jeana L. Drake, Douglas Erwin, Sylvian Foret, Ruth D. Gates, David F. Gruber, Bishoy Kamel, Michael P. Lesser, Oren Levy, Yi Jin Liew, Matthew MacManes, Tali Mass, Monica Medina, Shaadi Mehr, Eli Meyer, Dana C. Price, Hollie M. Putnam, Huan Qiu, Chuya Shinzato, Eiichi Shoguchi, Alexander J. Stokes, Sylvie Tambutté, Dan Tchernov, Christian R. Voolstra, Nicole Wagner, Charles W. Walker, Andreas P.M. Weber, Virginia Weis, Ehud Zelzion, Didier Zoccola, Paul G. Falkowski, 2016, eLife

Upside-down but headed in the right direction: Review of the highly versatile Cassiopea xamachana system

Aki H. Ohdera, Michael J. Abrams, Cheryl L. Ames, David M. Baker, Luis P. Suescún-Bolívar, Allen G. Collins, Christopher J. Freeman, Edgar Gamero-Mora, Tamar L. Goulet, Dietrich K. Hofmann, Adrian Jaimes-Becerra, Paul F. Long, Antonio C. Marques, Laura A. Miller, Laura D. Mydlarz, Andre C. Morandini, Casandra R. Newkirk, Sastia P. Putri, Julia E. Samson, Sérgio N. Stampar, Bailey Steinworth, Michelle Templeman, Patricia E. Thomé, Marli Vlok, Cheryl M. Woodley, Jane C.Y. Wong, Mark Q. Martindale, William K. Fitt, Mónica Medina, 2018, Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution

Beneath the surface: Community assembly and functions of the coral skeleton microbiome

Francesco Ricci, Vanessa Rossetto Marcelino, Linda L. Blackall, Michael Kühl, Mónica Medina, Heroen Verbruggen, 2019, Microbiome